The lovely new Gardens of St. Barbara were dedicated in a ceremony held Earth Day weekend at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church. After parish priest Father Haralambos Fox spoke to the congregation about the spiritual call to be good stewards of the natural world, church members and guests strolled through the Gardens, now in glorious spring bloom.
The Gardens feature dozens of delightful and drought-tolerant California native plants as well as plants endemic to other Mediterranean ecosystems from around the world. More than a church beautification project, the Gardens were designed to inspire better care and protection for nature, and to raise awareness of climate change.
According to Garden Director John McKinney, it all started with His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians. In 1997 he came to St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Santa Barbara, California to lead an Environmental Symposium and to share his vision of how people of faith should care for the natural world.